Davemarks

I'm a touch biased here, seeing that I teach at the Institute, but here's my angle... I get students from all walks of life and all ability levels coming to my classes. I teach them about some of the fundamentals of music and try to equip them with the tools to become working musicians. Often, the sucess of the student is more related to their own work ethic and level of commitment. A good school provides a focused and intensive environment in which to explore one's craft. One of the most important reasons for going to college is that it gives you a realistic idea of where you are as a player. Every year, I get at least one player who is good. A competant player who can hold their own on a covers gig and is probably the best bass player in his/her small town. If they can't do something (read, improvise, solo, compose) they just ignore that part of their musical makeup and probably miss out on opportunites because of it. They are often a self praising nightmare of misplacced confidence and they make up for any inability with loudmouthed arrogance. Every single one of these students has had a lightbulb moment sometime on their course. They come down to earth, get a little humility, become a much nicer person for it and start to go about raising their game in a way they never would have done alone. It's a sad fact that people rarely work on things they are not good at, and those are the things that need the most work! Each individual must come to their own path, but to say that learning from a school means you can't rock / have no soul / all sound the same... is as good as saying: 'Because we all learned to read and write properly, none of us are impassioned and none of us have any real ideas. If you want some great ideas, ask an illiterate person.' Ridiculous. I'm very happy to debate this topic, so please feel free to disagree... P.s. - having never been to BIMM I can't state anything about their courses or materials, but they have a fine reputation as a school...

Yes - that was me... it's a fair cop. Glad you enjoyed the night - I had a wicked fun time at that show. Dave

ummm... it's called networking. A forum like this allows us to share so much info, spread the word on gigs or products that are worth checking out and get advice from others who are more experienced in a particular discipline... It's an online community...

[quote name='dood' post='70092' date='Oct 5 2007, 06:05 PM']Ask Billy what his last 'lightbulb' moment was where he finally got something that clicked (as per the BC thread) Oh.. and ask him "If he had one question to ask any bass player (live or dead) what would it be?" - err.. as per the BC thread![/quote] I asked him about this in my interview for BGM - he said he had a night onstage with Talas when he suddenly looked at the bass neck and all of the positions made sense, suddenly he could see his way up and down it. Which is nice. Dave

+1 on the learning to read. Also, you could take a few jazz standards and pick them apart - work on learning them 4 ways: The melody The chords A walking bassline A nice improvised solo. This will build up your playing from a whole bunch of different angles. That should keep you busy for years... there are lots of great standards out there..

Hey chaps - This is a hot topic for me. I've seen all manner of players at college with variations on 'disrhythmia' :-) from mild to extreme. The main problem with the whole foot tap debate is that a lot of people don't know what to tap their feet along to. we can have Pulse foot -where the foot moves in time to the pulse of the music. This is good. Rhythm foot - where your foot moves with the notes you play. Not so good... Crazy foot - Fk knows what their foot is tapping with. I can honestly say, from the people that I've taught, those who can tap their foot in time have consistently better feel. It's important to engage with the pulse and not rely on your drummer to outline it. Every drummer feels it a little different - some push, some drag, some are right on it. If you have a strong sense of the pulse, you can adapt and play to match their groove, but if you have a vague sense of it, it can lead you to real problems. Rhythm is the only universal concept that exists in all music, regardless of style, so it's important to become rhythmically very strong. As an exercise to get you started, try playing 4 quarter notes in a bar with a metronome (C, C, C, C) now play the same thing, but start on the 'and' of each beat and play those four notes. (in the first exercise, your foot and note are in rhythmic unison. In the second, you get a tick - tock effect foot - note - foot - note etc..) Once you have this feel strong with your foot solidly on the pulse (i.e. with the metronome) you should try playing different notes (e.g. C, D, E, F etc...) then try some different rhythms. I posted a Funk Style file a while back that deals with 16th note rhythm exercises. I'll have the audio for it back up on my site if you wanna check it out (it's free...) Build up gradually - to start this process with some funk tune packed with 16th note syncopation can be like trying to climb onto a horse that's already moving. i.e. not very easy. If any of you guys are coming to the Bass Day, I'd be happy to alk a little about this more in my Institute Masterclass....

Jazz bands in schools need a bassist who can walk - pick a tune that has some chord changes and that swings. 'So What' only has 2 chords... so not such a great option. Maybe a nice jazz blues. They are going to be looking for feel - can you swing? Time - can you stay in time and keep a pulse ? (make sure you practice swing with your metronome only clicking on beats 2 & 4 - sim to the jazz drummer's hi-hat.) Harmonic knowledge i.e. -don't play 7ths over Maj 7 chords etc. professionalism (a bit) a simple tune that is well prepared will impress more than something flash that's underprepared or falls apart if you get nervous. Good luck with it -let us know how it goes..

I find it worrying that people say a sweatband will cure the problem. It's not a cure - it may prevent certain undesirable symptoms but in the long term, you could be doing yourself a very grave disservice.... Fixing your technique will cure the problem.

Having played in a few metal and death bands I've had years of smashing it with the pick. The technique on our instrument can be compared with martial arts - if you keep getting punched in the face, might be time to change tactic. :-) Putting on a sweatband is like patching up a hole in the roof with cardboard - it will hold for a while, but ultimately, you could spend a little time refining your playing technique, avoid this problem and I guarentee you'd be a better player for. We all love this instrument and I'm sure we'd like to play it as much as we can, for as long as we can. We have to find a way of getting the notes out where the instrument doesn't fight us. When playing, you can create power through intensity and controlled, precise movement. Think of the difference between a ninja and a football hooligan. Both can do damage, but my money's on the ninja. I've always liked ninjas. Hope this helps, Dave

Nice one Stu - I was using BFD - it's made by FXpansion. Awesome drum software.

okay... It's fixed - lots of the images aren't coming up on the site but links are working... Plus... I've just put up a set of mp3s for the Funk style file from last issue. I'd be interested to see what you guys make of those.... Let me know... [url="http://www.davemarks.com/pages/Words.html"]http://www.davemarks.com/pages/Words.html[/url] Dave

oops... sorting out a site transfer and a new design... bugs aplenty - i'll post back when it's working again.... Dave

Hey guys and girls - for any of you that have this month's Bass Guitar Magazine and want to hear how those Marcus licks should sound, I've posted mp3's on my website. [url="http://www.davemarks.com/pages/Words.html"]http://www.davemarks.com/pages/Words.html[/url] Just go to the bottom right and you'll see a link. I play through each clip first, then there's a playalong track and a slowed down playalong for you to jam and practice with. Enjoy!! Let me know what you think of these 'player' style files... they're something of an experiment at the minute... many thanx, Dave

I will eventually, but I have to leave it a certain amount of time after the issue was released...

I did a style file on latin bass playing in a recent copy of Bass Guitar Magazine. You can download some practice mp3s with examples of Latin lines and some playalong tracks from my website - just go to the words page and click on the Latin Style file, near the bottom... Dave

Caught the gig at Ronnie Scotts last night and it was just unreal. The whole Mike Stern band were on fire - it was unreal. Beautiful solos, thoughtful and inspried support playing and a great energy coming off the stage. The support, Natalie williams was also unreal. All in all, a fantastic night - nothing I can find fault with. AND as a smoke free venue, the whole thing is so much nicer - i don't wake up feeling rough and smelling bad. Great, great, great. (was nice to hook up with Alex from the Gallery too...)

Glad you enjoyed it!! Those guys are monster. Both such lovely guys and fabulously articulate in their own ways. Great fun was had by all!! They played Green Dolphin Street and a new Ballad of Mikes and then played Freddie Freeloader to finish. All awesome.

I've been chatting with a friend of mine who works at the IGF and he was telling me that they're running a summer course with a guest instructor. None other than Stu Hamm. I was totally unaware of this, and I imagine quite a few basschatters might like to get some lessons from the Hamm man. the course lasts for 6 days and I've no idea about costs etc, but you can find out more info at: [url="http://www.igf.org.uk/workshops/workshop-genre.php?showWorkshop=16"]http://www.igf.org.uk/workshops/workshop-g...showWorkshop=16[/url] Also, I haven't seen any advertising for this, which I imagine means it won't be too full, which means you could probably get some serious one on one time with Stu. can you guys let me know if I'm massively ignorant or are we all as surprised as me...? Dave

Just to let the rest of you know... the winners were: Bassjamm and Kevin Buckland I'll hopefully be hooking up for an interview with the big man and I'll see if i can get a video clip...

Hey guys - just email me your answer: [email protected] they're playing at ronnies 12th - 14th thur - fri - sat Dave

Hey all - the ICMP (Bass Instiute) is going to have one Mr Anthony Jackson in for a masterclass on Fri 13th July. He'll be doing a joint masterclass with Jazz-Rock guitar virtuoso Mike Stern, Places are obviously extremely limited, but I have 2 spaces to give away. Simply email me to [email protected] with the answer to this question: Which absolutely awesome monster bassist recently signed on as part of the Institute's visiting faculty? (for those of you who don't know, the answer might just be on the icmp website somewhere..) Winners will be drawn (on Monday of next week) at random from the replies I get.. Dave

Now there's a thought....

Smells like teen spirit and Stir it up are on there now.... [url="http://www.youtube.com/davemarks"]http://www.youtube.com/davemarks[/url] Comments and feedback always appreciated Enjoy...

Upper and lower dominants are terms I've ne familiarity with. Like Alun - I'm not saying they don't exist, but they aren't commonly used terms. What, pray tell is the book you are working from? Dave

New lesson up - So lonely by the Police. More coming soon... Enjoy! [url="http://youtube.com/watch?v=f4s0kOGn-ew"]http://youtube.com/watch?v=f4s0kOGn-ew[/url]